Friday, June 30, 2006


Wood apple in Iranaimadu, Kilinochchi, North of Sri Lanka

"All good things are wild, and free" - Henry David Thoreau - American Author (1817-1962)

Tuesday, June 20, 2006


In Jaffna - "Ponnuchi", Flower used in offerings to god, garland making.

"Kuyil", humming bird on a Cherry tree in Thirunelvely,Jaffna district in Sri Lanka

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it
sings because it has a song"- Dr. Maya Angelou

Thursday, June 15, 2006


"Neelotpalam" (Purple Lily) in a pond in Thavady, Jaffna district in Sri Lanka

"Just living is not enough, One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." - Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875), Danish Author/Poet

Full moon at Thirunelvely in Jaffna district,Sri Lanka

The moving Moon went up the sky.
And nowhere did abide;
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside - By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English lyrical poet and philosopher

Wednesday, June 14, 2006


A Pillaiyar idol is kept in front of a house in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

A Pillaiyar idol is kept in front of a house in Jaffna,Sri Lanka
"He reveals the insatiable
Clarity of Wisdom" - Vinayagar Agaval

"Colourful Thoughts" a joint exhibition of paintings was held at the Harold Peiris Art Gallery (Lionel Went Memorial Art Gallery) from May 26th to 28th 2006.
R.Kowshigan's "Rhythms", oil painting on canvass displayed among his other paintings

"Colourful Thoughts" a joint exhibition of paintings was held at the Harold Peiris Art Gallery (Lionel Went Memorial Art Gallery) from May 26th to 28th 2006.
Radhika Rao's "Ganesha" ,oil painting on canvass displayed among her other paintings

Vinayagar Agaval


[Pillaiyar painting at the Hilton Hotel, Colombo]

Auvaiyar's Vinayagar Agaval

The anklets
on the red lotus feet
of the cool baby elephant
sing many songs.
The golden waist chain
and fine skirts
resting upon his rainbow waist
beautifully shining.

His weighty tusk!

His elephant face
& the auspicious orange mark
is easy to perceive.

Five hands,
goad & noose,
his body of deep blue
has made my breast its home.

His hanging mouth,

four sets of shoulders,
three eyes,
and three musk trails...

His two ears,

with golden hair shining,
and three threads intertwined
upon his glowing breast...

He is the true knowledge:

Turiya, the Sleepless Sleep,
goes beyond
the word's meaning.

Wonder

has stood personified
as the Wish-fulfilling Tree!
As the Bull Elephant!

He who rides the mouse
sniffs out the three fruits.
I begged him,
"Take me now...
as your servant!"

He appeared as a mother
and showered his grace upon me.
Cleaved from me
the confusion that...
"Once born, I shant die."

Thus the pristine
and primal letters five
shall unite with me.
Shall came and enter my heart.

Assuming the Guru's guise
and keeping a sacred foot
upon this Earth,
he establishes life's meaning.

He joyously bestowed the grace
of the Path of No-Suffering.

Wielding his tusk as a weapon,
he weeds out
the cruel fruits of action.

My ears devour his teaching
without ever being filled.

He reveals the insatiable
Clarity of Wisdom.
The means to master the five senses.

He has sweetly graced me
with joyous compassion.

He proclaimed
that single thought
which shrinks
the delusionary power of the senses.

Putting an end
to this birth
and the next,
he has removed darkness,
and graced me with all
the four stages of mukti (enlightenment).

He cuts off the delusion
of the three impurities.

With one mantra
he showed how
the Nine Openings
and the Five Sense Doors
can be shut...

This is the Ankusha (elephant-goad)
of the six chakras:

Without stopping...
Standing firmly...
Let idle chatter be discarded.

He announced the letter
of the Idylla & Pingala
and showed that the end
of the Circle's Edge
is in the skull.

The snake hangs
on the pillar
that is the junction
of the three realms.

He helped me realize
it's tongue.

In the
Kundalini
one joins the silence...

It breaks open...
and the mantra that rises up
comes out
because of his teaching.

The rising flame,
breaking out
of Muladhara,
is caused to rise
by the wind.

Born of the single thought
which he has taught.

He related...

The state of drinking Amrita,
The movements of the Sun,
& the character of
The One Who Favors the Lily (the Moon).

He revealed
the 8+8 facets
of Vishudha Chakra
along with all the qualities
of my bodies wheels.

He sweetly graced me
with the ability to contemplate
the six faces gross
and the four faces subtle.

He enabled me to perceive
the subtle body,
and gain the darshan
of the Eight States.

He has revealed
within my mind
the Skull's Gate,
and given the sweet grace
of being established in mukti.

He made me know myself.
He showered me with grace.
He pulled out past karma...
by its root.

Without a single word or thought
my mind is one with him.

He has concentrated my mind,
clarified my intellect,
and said,

"Light & Darkness
share a common place."

He presses me down
into the grace giving ecstasy.

In my ear
he renders limitless bliss.

He has weeded out all difficulty
and shown the path of grace.

He has revealed Sada Shiva
within the sound.
He has revealed the Shiva Lingam
within the mind.

And he has revealed that...


The smaller than the smallest,
The larger that the largest,
stands within…
like ripe sugarcane.

He made me understand
the role of the ash
smeared on the brows
of the devotees merged in truth,
with whom
he made me
one.

He made both heart & mind
achieve the state of knowing
the precious meaning
of the Five Letters.

Having given to me
the True Nature of All Existence...


I am ruled
by the wise Vinayagar...

at whose feet
I take refuge.


[Courtesy: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/vinayaga.html]

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

"He has sweetly graced me, with joyous compassion"




















"Colourful Thoughts" a joint exhibition of paintings was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the Harold Peiris Art Gallery (Lionel Went Memorial Art Gallery) from May 26th to 28th 2006 Rumjhum Goswami's "Ganesha", oil painting on canvass displayed among her other paintings

“My ears devour his teaching
without ever being filled.

He has sweetly graced me
with joyous compassion”. – Avaiyar in Vinayagar Agaval

- Vinayagar Agaval is a hymn in praise of the Lord Ganesha, by the great Tamil Sage Avaiyar The song describes the various facts and facets of human life as being taught by Lord Ganesha

Mending Wall


Scene at dusk, Galle Face. Colombo

Why do they make good neighbors?

S
omething there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors." - Robert Frost (1874-1963).

Monday, June 05, 2006



Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. - Robert Frost (1874-1963), American Poet

Friday, June 02, 2006


"Puzhuni", Humming bird in Bambalapitiya, Sri Lanka

"Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928 - ) - Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature